Treasury nominee Janet Yellen to say USA does not seek weaker dollar

Wyden said nobody deserved more credit than Yellen for the longest economic expansion in USA history, and said she ought to be confirmed on Day one of the Biden administration.

Ms. Yellen will take the reins of an economic recovery that is faltering amid a monthslong surge in virus cases and deaths, which have topped 400,000 since the pandemic began.

Mark Sobel, a former U.S. Treasury official, said her stance felt like "a reiteration of the traditional policy".

"To avoid doing what we need to do now to address the pandemic and the economic damage that it's causing would likely leave us in a worse place fiscally", she said, "than taking the steps that are necessary and doing that through deficit finance".

The comments from the incoming administration reflect an unusual area of common ground with outgoing President Donald Trump, who over the past four years unleashed an aggressive and costly trade war that imposed billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on Chinese goods.

She pledged that the value of the United States dollar "should be determined by markets" and "if confirmed, I will work to implement the President-elect's promise to oppose any and all attempts by foreign countries to artificially manipulate currency values to gain an unfair advantage in trade".

She was also pressed about raising taxes or repealing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

"Eighteen million unemployment insurance claims are being paid every week".

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"Neither the president-elect, nor I, propose this relief package without an appreciation for the country's debt burden".

"There is an advantage to funding the debt especially when interest rates are very low by issuing long-term debt", Yellen also said. But she argued that with interest rates at historic lows, it would be a mistake for the federal government to pinch pennies at a time when COVID-19 is killing thousands of Americans every day.

"The SALT deduction was eliminated only a few years ago and before making a decision about what should be done going forward, I think it's critical to study and evaluate what the impact has been on state and local governments on their ability to provide critical services", Yellen said. "Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now - and long-term scarring of the economy later".

She added investment in clean technologies and electric vehicles was needed to cut carbon emissions, keep the US economy competitive and provide good jobs for American workers.

Biden, a Democrat, takes office on Wednesday.

"Yellen has been a proponent of fiscal stimulus, which benefits the (financial) sector, and she is viewed as being a more moderate choice from a regulation perspective".

Asked whether China had committed "genocide" in its treatment of Muslim Uighurs as the Trump administration declared in a last-minute proclamation, Yellen said China is "guilty of horrendous human rights abuses, yes". Republican Senator Mike Crapo said he would work towards an "expeditious" confirmation for Yellen. Her nomination has the backing of all the living former Treasury secretaries, both Democrats and Republicans.

Yellen told the panel that she'll be working with the Biden team on a second anticipated economic package "to get through these dark times".